SoUnd 41: Two Tails on Mobius
by Manic SoUnd
Summary: The first story in my Underground Miniseries. Tails, meet the Underground. Underground, meet Tails. After a mission goes south, the Sonic Underground gets a certain new two-tailed addition to the team.
1. Chapter 1

The hedgehog paced, looking over the edge of the rocky ledge her and her brother were standing on. "Where is he?" She asked her brother, clearly frustrated, whipping her head around to face him, making her pink quills fly up for a moment. "He's always late!" She added, showing her digital watch to her brother for emphasis.

"Chill sis." The green hedgehog sitting beside her laughed. "He'll be here, don't worry 'bout it." He was leaning against the steep rock wall behind them with his eyes closed, drumsticks in hand, playing imaginary drums.

They were Sonia and Manic Hedgehog, and the city which they were now just outside of was Robotropolis. The _plan _was to go in and destroy a new SWAbot factory, and as always, it had gone wrong before it even started. This was, of course, by no fault of their own. Because their brother was, _as always,_ late.

"When has he ever let us down?" He questioned his sister.

She opened her mouth to answer, but her brother cut her off.

"And not _nearly_, but how many times has he _really _not come through for us?"

"Hmph." She muttered, crossing her arms.

The green hedgehog beside her just smiled, his point proven.

Almost immediately after she spoke, a blue blur came and spun both hedgehogs around, Sonia falling on the ground.

"See, told you." Manic smiled, back in his original position with his back against the wall, his eyes still closed, and his drumsticks never missing a beat.

The blue hedgehog now standing in front of them laughed too, as his sister stood up.

"Sonic Hedgehog!" She yelled, facing him, and he jumped a little. "Why can you never just-"

"I know, I know!" He said, raising his hands. "Stick to the plan!" He rolled his eyes. "Cool it sis, I'm here, aren't I?"

Manic just laughed to himself again, watching his siblings argue.

Sonia turned to glare at both of her brothers. "Fine. You guys go plant the bombs then." She tossed them each a backpack that contained said bombs, and a pair of goggles each.

"Uhh... and these are for?" Sonic was looking at his goggles like they were some alien object.

"They're the new goggles Cyrus gave me. This way you can't trip any traps."

"Me? Trip a trap? You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding!" Sonic asked incredulously, acting insulted.

His sister started to reply, but he had already grabbed his brother and vanished in a blue blur, leaving an afterimage and a cloud of dust in his wake.

The pink hedgehog, having been knocked down _again,_ stood up and patting down her skirt, rolled her eyes. "Boys." She muttered to herself.

_ _ _ _ _

"Ok, let's meet back here in 20 minutes." Manic said as he and his brother stood at the outskirts of Robotropolis.

Sonic flashed him a grin, and asked "How about 20 seconds?" Without giving his brother a chance to respond, he sped off in the opposite direction, disappearing into a blur. A few seconds later, a sonic boom reached Manic's ears, and he grinned to himself.

Running of to do his own job, the green hedgehog soon came to the factory. He opened a map of the building on one of the goggles screens, so that it overlapped what he was seeing through the regular side.

He looked around quickly, pushing himself against the wall. He looked up and saw a metal grate, supposedly leading into the building's ventilation system. He grinned. He took a running leap, and kicked the metal grate. He kicked away from the wall doing a backflip, and grabbed the edge of the opening as he came back down. He knew some guards would have heard the noise of the metal cover falling to the ground, but by the time they arrived he was already out of sight.

As he crawled through the narrow metal shaft, he saw light up ahead of him. When he reached it, he looked down through another grate in the floor of the tunnel he was in. He saw some large generators in the room below. "Bingo." He said.

Jumping to the floor, he quickly took out the only two guards in the room before they had time to alert anyone else. He pushed passed the smoldering SWATbots and into the main room. He quickly placed each of his bombs, then went to make his way back to the outside.

Sonic hat to take out his own generator room, but he also got the control room, because let's face it, he was a lot faster. "Sonic?" Manic spoke through his headset.

"What up bro?"

Manic suppressed a laugh. "I'm done on my end, how about you?"

"Good to go!"

Manic could picture his brother giving a thumbs up, even though there was no one there to see him. "You know, that isn't necessary when you're on a headset." He told him.

"What? How did you?" Sonic sounded thoroughly confused now, and Manic couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Well? Can you two fool around when you get back? We kind of have a _factory to blow up here, _or did you guys forget?"

Manic and Sonic both fell silent, fearing their sisters wrath. "Uh... yeah. I'll be there in a sonic second." Sonic finally said.

Manic grinned again, then jumped back into the hole he left from entering. Once he was back in the shaft, he began making his way to his exit. He froze when he heard a voice. A real, Mobian's voice, not robots.

"Hey! Watch the tails!"

Manic crawled over to where the sound was coming from and looked down. He could barely make out the shape of two SWATbots at the end of the hallway, coming towards him. They were spitting out the regular, SWATbot speech.

'Blablabla, resistance is futile, blablabla, surrender now, blablabla, something Robotnik, you get the idea.'

As they got closer, he could make out a furry yellow shape in between them. A Mobian! And that must mean... that there was a robotisizer in this place!

He leaned down even more, trying to get a better view while not falling out of his hiding spot. The shape made itself known to be a fox, struggling in the grip of the two SWATbots. And surprisingly, he was... _laughing?_ "Go ahead, robotisize me. Actually, I would _love _to see that!"

Manic watched as the shapes passed by underneath of him, and dropped down into the hallway once it was clear again. As he began to follow the SWATbots, he heard his sisters voice again.

"Manic! What are you doing in there? You're going the wrong way!"

"What? Sonia, there's a kid in here."

"...A what? What are you talking about?"

"You know, a kid? A small child? A young Mobian?"

"Manic! Be serious! I know what a kid is. But what are you doing following him? You're running out of time, you have to get _out _of there!"

"And leave him here? Sonia, he can't be more than 10, I swear. Are you saying I should just walk out right now, and forget about him? Sonia, think about it."

When she didn't answer, he flicked off his head set and continued down the hallway. He came to a large set of heavy metal doors, and knew the robotisizing chamber was probably just on the other side. Then he heard the machine starting up.

_ _ _ _ _

Sonic was pacing, except he was doing so at super sonic speeds, so he looked like a mini blue tornado, and was leaving deep scorch marks in the ground. "_Well?"_

"He just turned off his headset!" His sister suddenly yelled, removing her own and tossing her own on the ground. "Why he! I can't believe this!" She was going into her 'panic-mode', which Sonic knew from experience wasn't pretty. He felt sorry for Manic when he got back.

"So, what's he doing?" He asked angrily.

"He's following a kid."

"Well he'd better _stop _following the kid! He's only _got _8 more minutes!" He tapped his foot impatiently for another couple of seconds, before revving his legs, preparing to go back and get his brother. Suddenly, he was jolded backwards, and looked to see his sister gripping his arm tightly.

"Hey! Whatchya doing?" He asked.

"Having both of you in there won't help the situation at all, Sonic. Manic can take care of himself, we'll just have to trust him."

Sonic hesitated, looking like he was about t argue. Then he looked down at his sister's hand again and sighed. He sat down and crossed his arms, one eye open, glaring up at his sister. "I hope you're right..."


	2. Chapter 2

Manic broke through the doors at about the same time that the machine malfunctioned. The bright lights flashed red, and grew more numerous, shooting out the sides of the machine. The noise became shriller too, and louder. It was utter chaos inside the room, and as Manic ran over and grabbed the metal edges of the machine, it finally shut down. With the energy off, it was easy for Manic to slide the metal wall down.

The yellow fox grinned at him when the wall came down, and gave Manic a thumbs up. "Thanks for the distraction Chia! You take out those 'bots, I'll get the door!"

Manic stood, slightly dumbfounded, as the fox ran towards the doors at the other side of the room. A few laser fires near his head brought him back into reality, and he turned to face the two SWATbots still in the room. He ran up to the two SWATbots and leaped into the air, kicking the first one in the chest. He pushed off and landed on his hands, flipping backwards to stand and face the other. He ducked a second before a laser passed over where his head had just been, and jumped back into the air as the robots fist passed under him, trying to trip him.

"Got it!" The boys voice from the doorway distracted Manic for a second, and he was hit in the side.

"Hey!" He shouted as he stood up.

"Sorry!" Tails called as he saw he had distracted him and gotten him hit. He ran over and grabbed the SWATbots arm with the laser rifle, so that it couldn't fire while Manic was standing up. Manic jumped up and landed on the SWATbots head, and pounded it with his drumsticks until sparks flew and the robot shut down.

"Score!" The kid yelled, high-fiving Manic.

They both rushed to the door that the fox had opened, and bolted into the hallway.

"Nice going, kid!" Manic shouted.

"The name's Tails!"

"Manic."

"I know!" The fox laughed as they ran, at Manics confused face.

More serious now, Manic shouted back to Tails "We've only got three minutes to get out of here!"

"Why? What happens then?"

"The building blows up! We had a timer set."

"Oooohh. We can't make it out in time."

"..._What?!"_

"Don't worry!" They were still running side by side, Manic following Tails, who seemed to know where he was going. "I know where we can go!" The fox suddenly took a sharp right, and brought them to a hallway that seemed to end in a dead end.

"Now what? We've got little less than a minute left."

A panel slid out of the wall, and the fox stared pressing the buttons on it furiously. "Now?"

"30 seconds."

"There." He pulled away as a door slid open. "Get in!" He and Manic both jumped inside the dark doorway, and the door slid shut behind them. At the same time, they felt the building shudder as the explosions went off. It was then that Manic noticed there was no floor.

"Ah!" He called out as he felt himself fall downwards, but then something grabbed his wrists and he stopped moving. "Tails? That you?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I've got you."

"Alright. I'm not going to ask."

It was still pitch black, so neither one of them could see what was going on.

It was then that Manic finally remembered his sibs. "Sonia's gonna be an-_gry_." He muttered, then flicked on his headset.

_ _ _ _ _

Sonic stopped his pacing to look at his watch. "Five, four, three, two, one."

As he spoke, he and his sister shielded their eyes to block out the light from the flames in the city below.

"Ok." Sonic said. "Not cool. Where _is _he Sonia? I _told_ you that I should have gone in and gotten him!"

Sonia was looking uncomfortable, and glared slightly at her brother.

"Hellooo? Anybody home?" Sonia jumped at Manic's voice.

"Manic! Sonic, come here!"

She threw Sonic the headset he had thrown on the ground earlier, and he caught it and put it on. "Manic, you cool?"

"You know it." They both laughed.

"Guys, this is _not _the time for jokes!" Sonia yelled, making both hedgehogs jump.

"Who said I was joking?" Manic asked, faking offended.

"Seriously, what happened back there? Where are you?"

"It's cool guys. Me and Tails are underground now."

"Tails?"

"The kid. We're fine. We're in the city's maintenance tunnels, we'll be on our way back in a few minutes."

"Good, we'll be waiting." Sonia responded.

_ _ _ _ _

"Oooh, can I talk to them? I wanna talk to Sonic! Can I? Huh?"

"Uh, maybe later." Manic said, putting his headset away. "They're already gone. Come one, we need to find our way out."

"Alright." Tails looked a little disappointed.

"Come on." Manic urged. "We've got to get going. I know a route to get us outside the city." He started off, walking through the tunnels, which he knew off by heart, with Tails following close behind.

Tails walked behind Manic, thinking about what a great day he'd had. Yeah, that's right, after being attacked, separated from his own freedom fighter group, caught and kidnapped by Robotnik, and nearly robotisized, he though it had been a nice day. After all, he was with Manic, and about to meet up with the rest of the Underground. That was cool. Plus, he'd gotten to destroy two SWATbots, a hover-unit, and a robotisizer all by himself.

Tails was brought of of his thoughts when he heard a sound. It was faint, somewhere between buzzing and humming. He pricked his ears forwards to try and hear better, which Manic seemed to notice.

"What's up T2?"

"I think I heard something."

"I can't hear anything."

"I have more sensitive ears than you."

Manic nodded, this being a good enough answer for him, when Tails suddenly yelled, "Get down!"

He finally recognized the sound a second too late, as the engine of a "silenced" hover-unit. Just as he and Manic ducked, the ships spotlight fell over the two.

_ _ _ _ _

"Hedgehog?"

Robotnik was holding Tails upside down by his tails in one of his hands, and Manic by his vest in the other. Tails was looking dizzy, probably from all the blood rushing to his head, and Manic was glaring at Robotnik with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, I am. At least I was the last time I checked.

Robotnik didn't seem to like Manic's sense of humour.

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you think? Blowing stuff up, breaking things, the usual." Manic answered casually. He reached for his medallion, ready to call out his drum kit, when Robotnik dropped Tails and used the hand that had been holding him up to grab Manic's medallion and rip it off of him.

"Hey!" Manic tried to grab his medallion back, but just swung around a bit and flailed. "Give that back!"

"You want it? Come and get it." Robotnik said dropping Manic and walking away.

Manic was still standing up when he felt something hit him in the back. He cried out as he fell to the floor again, when he glimpsed Tails out of the corner of his eye. Tails was also beginning to stand up, when he got hit in his arm by an orange laser beam. As Tails fell back down, Manic realized that this was probably what had just happened to him.

Manic tried to stand and reach Robotnik who was standing, just a few feet away, but only managed to stumble a few feet and fall again with a slight moan. He felt the SWATbot from before, which had shot him and Tails, grab him from behind, with no regard to his back wound.

"Heeeey!" Manic tried to swat the robot away, but the movement hurt his back too much, so he ended up just hanging there awkwardly.


	3. Chapter 3

"So Tails, any bright ideas?" Manic asked, leaning against the wall of their cell with his hands behind his head.

"Umm...nope."

"Too bad."

They both sat silently for a while, when a SWATbot came and opened the cell door. Tails went to dart out, but was quickly grabbed by the SWATbot. "Ouch! Hey, watch it, bolt brain!" He growled, as the 'bot picked him up by his tail. "Really, does it _always _have to be the tail? I do have other body parts you know!"

Manic almost laughed. Tails had a way with robots. But instead he lunged for the SWATbot. It easily grabbed his arm and flung him away, throwing him into the wall. He sat up a few minutes later, slightly dazed, and looked around. The cell was once again empty. He then looked down at his hands and grinned. _Oh well, I got what I wanted..._

_ _ _ _ _

Manic was running downthe corridor, in the direction he had seen the SWATbot take Tails, when he came to a split. He look down each hallway, and mumbled "What to do, what to do..."

His question was answered quickly when he heard the sound of the robotisizer starting up in the right corridor. "Guess that;s where I'm going." He shrugged to the fourth wall, and ran off in the direction the sound was coming from. He stayed behind the door when he got there so he wasn't seen, and noticed Sleet sitting at the controls, yelling. When he got a good look at what he was yelling at, it was hard not to laugh.

There was Tails, hovering a few feet above the robotisizer with his arms crossed. "Oh _come _on!" He was saying. "I don't even think you're _trying _any more!" He looked a little sad. "I thought you really cared."

Manic was holding his hand over his mouth, watching Tails sitting like that in mid-air above the machine, with Sleet getting angrier and angrier, not being able to do a thing about it. He was nearly doubled over, with his other hand on his knees. _I _love _this kid!_ He thought to himself, watching the fox's antics.

"Get in hte robotisizer!" Sleet screamed, still having a temper tantrum.

"If you say so!" Tails called out, grinning. He stopped spinning his tails and dropped like a rock into the metal cylinder of the robotisizer. Manic stood up straight again and watched with interest. Even Sleet had enough common sense to be a confused, if only a little, by the fox's sudden actions.

Suddenly the machine's lights turned form green to a red-purple, and it began making odd noises.

"What's going on?" Yelled Sleet, to no one in particular. Surprisingly enough though, he got an answer.

"Hmm? Oh, that? I'm not sure, but I'd say that there nifty machine of your is about to blow up." Tails said, very matter of factly.

It took Sleet a moment to realize that Tails was standing, unharmed, directly behind him. He suddenly spun around. "You!" He yelled, utterly confused.

"Bye!" Tails called cheerfully, spinning his Tails and flying over to Manic. He picked him up, and they raced forthe nearest exited the room just as the robotisizer exploded, and Tails called out "Wheeee!" As the blast pushed him faster through the air.

With most of the SWATbots heading to the robotisizer room, they made it to the roof with ease.

"How did you do that?" Manic asked, cathing his breath.

"Hmm? Oh it was nothing really. Just a modified EMP. I have a few, seriously, I make them in my spare time. They're pretty useful in a city overrun by robots."

"No, I meant the whole _flying _thing!"

Tails laughed. "Hehe, I don't really know. I just kind of spin my tails together,and it did _you _get out of that cell?"

"Ye with little faith!" He said, holding up the cell keys in his hand. "Never leave home witout 'em!" He grinned. This was what he snatched from the SWATbot when it took Tails.

"Past cool!" Tails flashed him a thumbs up.

Manic nodded. "Let's go—oohh...." He looked down over the side of the building. "Whoops. I kinda forgot, Robutnik still has my hoverboard."

Tails shrugged. "I can make you a new one later."

"Yeah, but how are we gonna get down?"

"...umm..." Tails looked over his shoulder at the drop. "I could fly us."

"You can do that?"

"Well, not really, at least not with a passenger, but I can at least get us down lightly."

"Good enough for me!" Manic grinned.

"Grab on!" Tails reached out and he and Manic gripped each others wrists, and Tails jumped over the edge. At frst, it seemed like they were just going to drop straight down, but Tails quickly arrested their fall, and their descent slowed until they were hardly falling.

"There."Manic said, spotting the van in the distance. "Can you take us over there?"

"I don't have enough height to get us all the way, but sure, I can go in that direction."

They landed a few miles short, just outside the city limits. "Shoot." Manic muttered. Too bad 'Butnik took my headset. I could just get Sonic to pick us up. Now it looks like we'll have to walk."

"Can you wait here?" Tails asked. "I can go fly and get him, and be right back."

Manic shrugged. "Sure."

He only had to wait a few minutes. It took fifteen minutes for Sonic to arrive with Tails, and five more minutes to get back to the van.

_ _ _ _ _

Tails sat quietly, watching the three hedgehogs argue about him, as if he wasn't even there.

"Oh come on! He totalled three SWATbots and two robotisizers_ on his own! _And did I forget to mention he can _fly? _I don't see wha the problem is! He can take care of himself, he could be useful, it'll be cool!"

"But Manic," His sister tried to reason. "He's ten! He'll just get in our way, and he might get hurt! Then what?"

"Sis, with Robutnik in charge, _anyone _could get hurt, he's just able to help! You're telling me we shouldn't let him?"

"Yes!"

"Yeah Manic, Tails should go to sanctuary." Sonic added, referring to the place where all the children that were to young to be freedom fighters lived.

"Are you kidding me Sonic? Sanctuary? That's for little kids! Besides, sanctuary is way out of our way."

"Forget it Manic." Tails said, standing up. "Your sibs obviously doesn't want me around. I didn't think I'd ever actually get to meet the Sonic Underground, but I _was _kinda hoping I'd be able to help you guys. But hey, I've been going solo for three years now, and you guys seem to be doing fine on your own. If they," He indicated Sonic and Sonia "want me to leave, I will."

"Nuh uh, no way guy. You're stayin with us."

"Fine." Sonic said. "He can hang with us until we find somewhere for him to stay for good."

Tails looked at him. "I don't stay anywhere for good. Once you guys get bored of having me around, I'll go out on my own again. But Manic's right, I'm not going to Sanctuary. You want me gone, I'll go on my own terms. Like Manic said, if I can help in this fight, then I will."

**SatAM Sonic:** What's wrong with this picture?

**Mossmask: **Whatever do you mean, Sonic?

**Sonic: **What have I got against Tails? And way past cool? Isn't that my line?

**Mossmask:** Well, yeah... but... it's _your_ line. I've been over the episodes, and I'm pretty sure that SU Sonic doesn't say it.

**Sonic:** So why should Manic get to say it?

**Mossmask: **Because I like him better. And Tails. I figure the two best characters should be best friends, and get the cool lines.

**Sonic: **Ouch. That hurts.


End file.
